Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were not included amongst the Indian Cricket Board’s pool of centrally contracted cricketers for the 2023–24 season, which was selected by the committee chaired by Ajit Agarkar. The Indian Cricket Board is planning to raise Test match payments and offer extra benefits for players who participate in every Test series in a calendar year, in a major effort to persuade players to love the longest version of cricket.
With Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer choosing to forego domestic cricket in favour of concentrating on Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 preparations, it is clear that players are becoming less and less interested in red-ball cricket. This move is an attempt to stop that from happening anytime soon.
In the media advisory, the Indian Cricket Board stated, “Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations.”
“The Selection Committee has also recommended Fast Bowling contracts for the following athletes – Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa. The Board has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team”, it further added.
It’s worth noting that the Indian Cricket Board has come up with new criteria to add players to the central contract automatically. It states, “Additionally, athletes who meet the criteria of playing a minimum of 3 Tests or 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period will automatically be included in Grade C on a pro-rata basis.”
“For instance, Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, having played 2 Test matches so far, will be inducted into Grade C if they participate in the Dharamsala Test Match, i.e., the 5th Test of the ongoing series against England.”
Distribution of Annual Player Contracts Team India (Senior Men)
Down below, is the list of players who have been put into different salary brackets depending on their performances over the past year. The list has changed drastically since last year as the veterans of the team do not find themselves holding a central contract anymore.
| Serial Number | Grade | Name | Salary |
| 1 | A+ | Rohit Sharma | 7 CR |
| 2 | A+ | Virat Kohli | 7 CR |
| 3 | A+ | Jasprit Bumrah | 7 CR |
| 4 | A+ | Ravindra Jadeja | 7 CR |
| 5 | A | Hardik Pandya | 5 CR |
| 6 | A | Ravichandran Ashwin | 5 CR |
| 7 | A | Mohammad Shami | 5 CR |
| 8 | A | Mohammed Siraj | 5 CR |
| 9 | A | Shubman Gill | 5 CR |
| 10 | A | KL Rahul | 5 CR |
| 11 | B | Yashasvi Jaiswal | 3 CR |
| 12 | B | Kuldeep Yadav | 3 CR |
| 13 | B | Rishabh Pant | 3 CR |
| 14 | B | Suryakumar Yadav | 3 CR |
| 15 | B | Axar Patel | 3 CR |
| 16 | C | Rinku Singh | 1 CR |
| 17 | C | Tilak Verma | 1 CR |
| 18 | C | Shardul Thakur | 1 CR |
| 19 | C | Ruturaj Gaekwad | 1 CR |
| 20 | C | Shivam Dube | 1 CR |
| 21 | C | Ravi Bishnoi | 1 CR |
| 22 | C | Jitesh Sharma | 1 CR |
| 23 | C | Washington Sundar | 1 CR |
| 24 | C | Sanju Samson | 1 CR |
| 25 | C | Arshdeep Singh | 1 CR |
| 26 | C | Mukesh Kumar | 1 CR |
| 26 | C | KS Bharat | 1 CR |
| 26 | C | Prasidh Krishna | 1 CR |
| 26 | C | Avesh Khan | 1 CR |
| 26 | C | Rajat Patidar | 1 CR |
